Yes, I linked to the Oxford Dictionary. Yes, I’m a smart ass . . . but I’m also completely motherfucking serious. There are no words that are off-limits when you write. Nope, not that one. Nope, not even that one. Nope, not that one either. There are no words that are off-limits. It’s all a matter of how and why you use them.

Yes, I know there are some words that aren’t considered polite any more that used to be used freely. If you’re writing a story that’s set in an era when calling American natives Indians was simply what was done, then fucking use the word Indian. If you call them Native Americans, then you’re going to pull any reader who knows anything about history the fuck out of your story. This applies to terms that are no longer acceptable for other races too.

Tangentially (C’mon, it’s me. Were you honestly expecting me to stay on topic?!), you also need to have correct historical attitudes. Your 1860s protagonist can be ridiculously ahead of their time when it comes to race and gender relations, that’s cool, I can understand why you’d do that, but if your whole cast is then my suspension of disbelief shatters into a thousand tiny pieces.

“But,” you whine, “I don’t want to write about people with horrible beliefs like that!”

Then maybe you shouldn’t be writing historical fiction!

Also, if I see one more person criticizing Louis L’Amour or Laura Ingalls Wilder for accurately portraying how white people saw the indigenous people of North America in the late 1800s, I’m going to . . . I don’t know what I’ll do, but it won’t be pretty and might involve bloodshed. (I’m exaggerating. Possibly.)

And if you think books should be banned for accurately portraying historical attitudes, go fuck yourself. History isn’t politically correct. There are aspects of today’s society that I sincerely hope future generations find as disturbing as we do the treatment of pretty much everybody but cis, white, neurotypical, able-bodied men for most of European and American history.

(And, yet again, the interesting part of this post is where I left the actual suggested blog topic behind. It’s almost like these topics aren’t interesting on their own . . .)